ADDRESS 



OF 



ARTHUR GEORGE BROWN 



Commemorative Entertainment 



OF THE 



I 



Maryland Society of Colonial Dames 

OF AMERICA 

Tuesday, March 27th 
1894 



ADDRESS 



ARTHUR GEORGE BROWN 



Commemorative Entertainment 



Maryland Society of Colonial Dames 

OF AMERICA 

Tuesday, March 27th 
1894 



rRINTED KV TUK SOCIETY. 

CRESS OK JNO. H. WILLIAMS COMPANY, 

liALTIMOKK. 



Ladiks AM) CjF.x ri.i:Mi:x : 

Oil this 27th clay of March — selected because it is the 260th 
anni\ersary of the foundin*;- of the now vanished town of 
Saint NFary's — we have met here, at the invitation of the 
Maryland Society of the Colonial Dames of America. 

That Society, incorporated in 1S91. is a member of tlie 
National Society, which has sub-divisions in the thirteen ori- 
o;inal States and the District of Columbia. 

Its constitution eloquently says : " Whereas, History shows 
that successive g'enerations are awakened to truer patriotism 
' and stimulated to nobler endeavour by the contemplation of 
the heroic deeds of their forefathers, and that the remem- 
brance of a nation's glory in the past is essential to national 
greatness in the future ; therefore, recognizing the responsi- 
bility which rests upon the decendants of those men and women 
who in the Colonial period and in the struggle which secured 
• for us our liberty and our Constitution sacrificed their all for 
their country, to emulate the virtues of our forefathers, we 
do hereby associate ourselves under the title of " The Colo- 
nial Dames of America." 

" Its object shall be" '•- '•- * * "to diffuse health- 
ful and intelligent information in whatever concerns the past 
and tends to create popular interest in American history, and 
with a true spirit of patriotism seek to inspire genuine love 
of country in ex'cry heart within its range of influence ; and 
to teach the young" that it is a sacred obligation to do justice 
and honor to heroic ancestors whose ability, valor, sufferings 
and achievements are beyond all praise." 

.Such an undertaking, in the hands of the good and able 
women who have formed this association, with such objects, 
is certain of success, and we men must be content to follow 
afar off, (as in these latter davs we have learned to do,) and 
aid our betters only with svmpathy and encouragement ; e\en 
at the risk of throwing serious discredit upon that high sound- 
ing motto, " Fatti Maschij Parole P'emine," which forms a 
part of the heraldic blazonry of the State. 



But then, in extenuation for that ancient and now obsolete 
phrase, we must not forget that it was attached to the Calvert 
arms centuries ago, in England ; and without opportunity 
for acquaintance with the fair and capa])le daughters of Mary- 
land, who constitute to-day, the world over, as they ha\e 
ever done, her highest title to honor and distinction. 

Therefore, by command of these ladies of the Maryland 
Society of Colonial Dames, I shall have the honor of saying 
a few words, intended to be appropriate to this day and 
occasion. 

In the library of the Maryland Historical Society — on the 
same frame which sustains the portraits of those lordly mem- 
bers of the House of Calvert, who were almost kings, and 
owned and ruled, in succession, their Province of Maryland — 
hangs an old engraving, the history of which is as curious as 
it is interesting. 

These explanatory words appear, engraved upon the margin 
of the picture: 

"In the Elysium one of the series of pictures on Human 
Culture in the great room of the Society for the Encourage- 
ment of Arts, etc., at the Adelphi, a mistake was committed, 
owing to the delusion which has been so generally spread 
concerning William Penn as the first colonizer who estab- 
lished equal laws of Religious and Civil Liberty. This design 
is therefore added to the Series, in order to rectify the mis- 
take in the groupe of Legislators, by making Lycurgus look- 
ing at those exemplary laws as placed in the hands of Cecilius 
Calvert, Baron of Baltimore, who was the original establisher 
of them in his colony of Maryland, many years before 
William Penn and his colony arrived in America to copy the 
worthy examjile. Designed, engraved and published by 
James Barry. R. A., Professor of Painting to the Ro}-al 
Academy, Eebruary 28, 1793." 

That artist, who painted, in the building called the Adelphi 
in London, the elaborate and cxtcnsi\-e series of pictures 
referred to, in the second xolume of his published works, 
thus refers to and further ex])lains his engraving: 

" I shall, to the best of my power, make honoral)le amends 
to Lord Baltimore for my error : it is not now ])()ssil)le to 



alter that part of tlie picture of Elysium, nor of the print, 
they must remain as they are, a monument of the j^eneral 
dekision in which I ha\'e participated. But I have made a 
new design for that part, where the mattei" is as it should be, 
and I shall, with (iod's hlessinc;', publish a print of it \'ery 
shortly." 

This high estimate of Cecilius, written a century ago, and 
often since in many forms and by many writers expressed, is 
amply confirmed by the latest historian of Maryland, and 
biographer of her founders. Dr. William Hand Browne, of 
lohns Hopkins University, whose labors and researches have 
illumined, more than those of any other scholar, the archi\es 
of his natixe State. 

In his history, Dr. Browne says : 

"Baltimore was no indifferentist in matters ol religion. 
That he was a sincere Catholic is shown by the fact that all 
the attacks upon his rights were aimed at his faith, as the 
most vulnerable point. That he was a papist, and Maryland 
a papist colony, a nursery of Jesuits and plotters against 
Protestantism, was the endless burden of his enemies' charges. 
He had only to declare himself a Protestant to be ])laced in 
an unassailable position ; yet that step he never took, even 
when ruin seemed certain. But he was singularly free from 
l)igotry, and he had had bitter knowledge of the fruits of 
religious dissension ; and he meant from the first, so far as in 
him lay, to secure his colonists from them. His brother 
Leonard, and those who were associated with him in the gov- 
ernment, shared his spirit, and from the fouiulation of the 
colony no man was molested under Baltimore's rule on account 
of religion. Whenever the Proprietary's power was over- 
thrown, religious persecution began, and was checked so 
soon as he was reinstated." 

Formerly, as you are well aware, there was much discus- 
sion as to the resi)c(tive shares of the ]K-()plc through their 
Assembly, and of Lord Baltimore, in the famous and noble 
Maryland Act of Toleration which was ])assed in 1649 and 
became part of the .Statute law of the Colony ; and comment 
has Ijecn made and detraction founded u])on the fact that it was 
not ado])te(l until llflcen \-cMrs after the landing at .St. Mary's. 



But happily now, for the truth of history and for the just 
reputations of illustrious men, all excuse for question or criti- 
cism on that subject has been removed by the recent remark- 
able discovery of some of the long--lost Calvert papers. 
Among- them is the original draft, in Lord Baltimore's writ- 
ing, with his own erasures and corrections, of the instructions 
to his brother Leonard for the conduct of the expedition 
which was then about to set sail in the "Ark" and the 
" r)o\e," and for the government of the colony. 

First, and especially, " His Lordship recjuires his said 
Go\'ernor and Commissioners that in their voyage to Mary 
Land they be very careful to preser\e unity and peace 
amongst all the passengers on Shipp-board, and that they 
Suffer no scandall nor offence to be given to any of the Pro- 
testants," * ^= -'^ * "and that they instruct all the 
Roman Catholiques to be silent upon all occasions of dis- 
course concerning matters of Religion ; and that the said 
Governor and Commissioners treate the Protestants with as 
much mildness and favor as Justice will permitt. And this 
to be observed at Land as well as at Sea." 

This, preceded in England by the Proprietary's published 
inx'itation to colonists, and followed in Maryland by his pro- 
clamation prohibiting "all unseasonable disputations in point 
of religion tending to the disturbance of the public peace 
and quiet of the colony, and to the opening of faction in 
religion," and the sentence and punishment in 1638 and in 
1642 of certain Roman Catholics who were guilty of offen- 
sive words or acts towards Protestants — of which the judicial 
records now remain — and by the strict and searching oaths 
ol office which, beginning in 1636, were administered to the 
( Governor and to the Judges of the Courts, establish l^eyond' 
question the fact that religious liberty and toleration, and 
consequent unity and peace, existed in and after the year 
1634 in the colony of Maryland, and nowhere else, simply 
because Cecilius Calvert — whose sovereign title, as one of the 
rulers of the earth, was Absolute Lord of the Land of Mary 
and of Avalon, Baron of Baltimore — was a wise, just and 
clement ruler, who feared (iod and lo\ed his fellow men, and 



a statesman who was far, vcrv far iiuleed, in adxance of his 
time and his nati\-e country. 

Let us, therefore, never weary of recalHui;' that threat fact ; 
and, in so doiny-, let us never fail to lift our hearts in grateful 
acknowledgement to him who, having finished his course 
more than two centuries ago, ceased to be the Absolute Lord 
of Maryland, but who has e\'er since been and will ever be 
one of "the dead, but sceptered sovereigns, who still rule 
our spirits from their urns." Truly ma}' we now say of him : 
" Those whom thou should" st call thy peers. 

Sit on the sjilendid benches of all time." 

Such, then, were the conditions under which Christian 
cixilization was founded here, on land which had been 
honestly purchased from the Indian owners and with their 
favor. And well may we so characterize the polity of the 
Raltimores, for it included not only toleration in matters 
of religion, but the first go\'ernment ever established in 
a British pfovince in which the people were regularly and 
formally called upon to aid through their assembly : and 
it not only protected and conciliated the whites, but — 
in a measure therefore unknown — the Indians also. It is 
e\en recorded that the first printing press ever worked in 
any British colony was set up in Maryland, where it was 
early used by the devoted Jesuit Fathers to ])rint a gram- 
mar, vocabulary and catechism, the last in se\eral Indian 
dialects, which the learned Father Andrew White jjrepared, 
to aid their missionarv work, after he had liimsclf mastered 
the Indian tongues. 

That eminent man, who has been well classed among the 
Apostles to the Indians, had meekly borne his Master's cross 
in many lands, before it became his high pri\ilege to raise it 
here, on Saint Clement's isle, as he himself narrates, "on 
the day of the Annunciation of the Most Holy X'irgin Mary 
in the year 1634;" and several times, before he was called 
to his reward, he came near attaining the transcendent glory 
. of the martyr's crown. I^'or what those, outside his order 
and beyond the pale of his own church, know of him, we 
are largely indebted to a learned clerg\nian, now deceased, 
of the Protestant E])isc()])al Churrh, the Re\erfnd Dr. Dal- 



rym])le of this city, who edited for the Maryland Historical 
Society, Father White's " Relatio Itineris in Mary landiani," 
and has traced the outlines of the life of his Jesuit brother — 
concerning whom Dr. Dalrymble says: "His self-denial, 
pri\'ations and sufferings, and the touching patience and 
cheerfulness, with which thcv were all endured, move our 
])rofound respect and admiration. Father White deserves a 
high place of honor amongst the manv heroic missionaries of 
the Society of Jesus." 

Such, then, were the auspicious conditions under which 
the good seed of civilization was planted in the fertile soil of 
Maryland ; and now, after the lapse of two hundred and 
si.xty years, we must ask ourselves what has the harvest been ? 

That same Father White, in his Relatio, after describing, 
in words, which are as sim])lc as they are graceful and 
appropriate, the events to w hich we have only been able to 
give a passing glance, suddenly, and with an almost startling 
impressiveness, wrote this solemn declaration: " The finger 
of God is in this, and He purposes some great benefit to this 
nation. ' ' 

Has that remarkable prophecy been fulfilled ? 

Tra^•ersing that long stretch of intervening years, and halt- 
ing half way, we find a landmark set up at the year 1769, by 
William Eddis, Surveyor of the Customs, at Annapolis who 
published afterwards in London a book now somewhat rare, 
and not so widelv known as it deserves to be, entitled " Letters 
from America Historical and Descripti\e ; Comprising occur- 
rences from 1769 to 1777 Inclusive." 

In his "Introduction" Mr. Eddis said: "The author 
arrived on the American Continent in the year 1769, and 
settled at Annapolis, under the patronage and protection ot 
the then (iovernor of Maryland ; from his situation there, he 
became intimatelv acquainted with the leading characters of 
every ])art}' in that pro\ince, and with e\ery exent which 
occurred subsequent to his own arri\al, until the unfortunate 
luisunderstanding, which arose between thi^ parent state and 
the colonies, rendered it impossible for e\ery one, like him 
sincerely and steadily attached to the former, to continue in 
the countrv. " 



This intcllii;c'iit and kiiuUy obsener describes a c()iiinuinit\-, 
with varied })ursuits and interests, prosperous and enter|)ri.i;- 
ini;, and contented — until the Rex'olution was near at hand — 
and exhibiting' a degree of refinement which is remarkal)le, 
considering- the fact that less than one hundred and fortN' 
years had elapsed since the first settlement. 

A few extracts may be appropriate, ])resentin<4, as the\' do. 
pleasino- and authentic pictures of Maryland Colonial life. 
He said : "The colonists arc composed of adventurers, not 
only from every district of ( ireat Britain and Ireland, but 
from almost e\-ery other European oo\ernment, where tlie 
principles of liberty and commerce have operated with sj)irit 
anfl efficacy. Is it not, therefore, reasonable to suppose, that 
the English lang-uage must be greatly corrupted by such a 
strange intermixture of \arious nations ? The rex'erse is, 
however, true. The language of the immediate decendants 
of such a promiscuous ancestry is perfectly uniform, and 
unadulterated ; nor has it borrowed any provincial, or 
national accent, from its British or foreign parentage. 

For my part, I confess myself totally at a loss to account 
for the apparent difierence, between the colonists and i)ersons 
under equal circumstclnces of education and fortune, resident 
in the mother country. " 

Referring to Annapolis he wrote: " In a former letter, 1 
attempted to coii\ey some idea of the truly picturescjue and 
beautiful situation of our little capital. Several of the most 
opulent families ha\e here established their residence ; and 
hospitalit}- is the characteristic of the inhabitants. Parl\- 
l)rejudices ha\e little infiuence on social intercourse ; the 
grave and ancient enjoy the blessings of a respectable society, 
while the young and gay ha\'c \'arious amusements to engage 
their hours of relaxation, and to promote that nuitual con- 
nection so essential to their fiiture hap])iness." 

Describing the social life of pro\-incial Maryland, Mr. ICddis 
wrote on Christmas E\e in 1771 : "The quick importation 
ol fashions from the mother country is really astonishing. I 
am almost inclined to believe, that a new fashion is adoi)tc-d 
earlier by the polished and affiuent American, than b\- man\- 
opideiU persons in the great metropolis; n<jr are o|)portu- 



nities wanting' to display superior elegance. We have varied 
amusements, and numerous parties, which afford to the young, 
the gay, and the ambitious, an extensive held to contend in 
the race of \ain and idle competition. In short, very little 
difference is, in reality, obser\able in the manners of the 
wealthy colonist and the wealthy Briton, (jood and bad 
habits pre\ail on lioth sides the Atlantic. " 

Speaking of the Maryland Society of the Colonial Dames 
of America, as it existed then, Mr. Eddis said : 

" It is but justice to confess, that the American ladies pos- 
sess a natural ease and elegance in the whole of their deport- 
ment ; and that while they assiduously culti\ate external 
accomplishments, they are still anxiously attentixe to the 
more im])ortant embellishments of the mind. In conxersa- 
tion thev are generally animated, and entertaining, and 
deli\er their sentiments with affability and propriety. In a 
word, there are, throughout these colonies, very many lovely 
women, who have never passed the bounds of their respect- 
i\e prox'ince, and yet, I am persuaded, might appear to great 
ad\'antage in the most brilliant circles of gaiety and fashion." 

And lastly, before we take leave of Mr. Eddis, let me quote 
this important passage from a letter written in 1772 : " The 
nati\es of these provinces, even those who move in the hum- 
bler circles of life, discover a shrewdness and penetration, 
not generally observable in the mother covuitry. On many 
occasions, they are inquisiti\'e, eveii beyond the bounds of 
propriety ; they discriminate characters with the greatest 
accuracv ; and there are few who do not seem perfectly con- 
\ersant with the general and particular interests of the com- 
munity. An idea of equality also seems generally to prevail, 
and the inferior order of people pay but little external respect 
to those who occupy superior stations." 

And now, j)arting companv with Mr. Eddis, we come to 
answer, very briefly, with reference to our own time, the 
question which has been asked. 

It does not become us to exaggerate either our merits as 
citizens of Maryland or our shortcomings. Concerning both, 
we have often heard enouiih. 



But, recoi^nizini^- the applicaljility, alike to tlie li\cs ot" 
States and of individuals, of that profound saying " the child 
is father oi the man," we may, in passing-, note a few of the 
characteristics which mark us now, to-day, as the descend- 
ants and successors of the men and women who were the 
founders. 

"The hills and \ales of pleasant Maryland," with all the 
wealth of her singularly \'aried flora remain, for our delight 
and profit, just as they were when they gladdened the eyes 
and hearts of the first voyagers ; and now, as then, over her 
unrivalled water ways, " Potomac calls to Chesapeake." 

Happily situated, between the North and the South, she 
l)artakes — in all physical features, and in the constitution of 
her people — of the qualities of both. 

Her population is as singularly varied as her C(Hnities, and 
some of the races which owe her allegiance and live under 
her protection are, in nature and condition, as broadly dis- 
tinguished, and as wide apart as Worcester and Allegany. 
^ And yet, varied and diverse as are the elements which con- 
stitute our State, the resultant of them and of their social 
forces is one harmonious whole. 

In peace and plenty, enjoying an average ot comfort so 
high — climate, abundance, and all things else considered — 
that it is almost unique, self-respecting, patriotic and intelli- 
gent, the good citizens of Maryland, of all classes and 
churches, pass their lives ; protected in their own rights, and 
justly regarding the rights of others. No other example, so 
cons])icuous, exists the world over, of the harmonizing and 
cohesive power of republican institutions, when administered 
in that tolerant s])irit, which was the free gift of the Founders 
of Mar\'land, and is now our priceless and inalienable inheri- 
tance. 

Honoring them, and meeting to commemorate their good 
deeds in this joyful week — when Lady Day and Easter have 
come together — with the message brought l^y Gabriel, and 
also the words of that other angel who said, and still says, 
" unto the women. Fear not ye," " He is not here ; for he 
is risen," both ringing in our ears ; remembering that on that 
27th day of March in 1634 "religious liberty attained a home 



— its ()iil\- home 111 the wulc world — at the hunihle xilhij^e 
which bore the name of Saint Mary's," and that t(j-day the 
home of that same blessed principle is almost everywhere — 
we may proclaim that to Maryland, and from Maryland to the 
whole cixilized world has come the Prince of Peace. 

Ami as tor us, her children, remembering' all that our 
.Mother State — this fair and benignant Land of Mary — has 
been and is for us, and that her birth day is the feast of the 
Annunciation, v\e too may join our \()ices to the " Hail" of 
the heavenly messenger, and salute her, with (jne acclaim, 
.■Iz'C ! Maria. 

And adopting that ascription which Cecilius CaKert him- 
self borrowed from his own X'ulgate version of the Psalms — 
in order that he might inscribe the words around the border 
of his shield — let us, with full and thankful hearts, avow this 
day, with him, "Scuto Bonie X'oluntatis 'l\ue Coronasti Nos." 

For Cah'ert, those words implied a prophecy : for us, they 
express a beneficent fulfilment. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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